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- a seminar by Rob & Cyndy Shearer. You can also download the .mp3 file (its about 55mb) and listen to it at your leisure on your ipod or .mp3 player.
I recall a small, but significant moment in a taxicab ride in Changsha about twelve years ago. My oldest daughter and I had been in Changsha, Hunan Province for about a week, and I had noticed that every cab we got into had a pendant hanging from the rearview mirror with a portrait of Mao in a red-and-gold frame.
The cult of Mao had largely receded in the rest of China. The only place to find copies of The Little Red Book of Chairman Mao was at flea markets and souvenir shops. So I asked our driver why every taxi cab had a picture of Mao hanging from the rearview mirror. His reply startled me. He explained that the cab drivers believed Mao had proved himself to be a powerful figure – in fact, more powerful than the older, more traditional local gods and Buddhas of China. After all, explained the driver, he had challenged all of the older gods – closed their temples, attempted to rid China of superstition – and yet had not been struck down. Mao had, in fact, lived a long, full life. Ergo, he must be more powerful than all of the gods he had challenged and beat.
Thus, the taxicabs all had a picture of Mao as a sort of talisman – to invoke his spirit and power for protection and favor.
Changsha is in the south of China. It is the capital of Hunan province, Mao’s home. The taxicabs in Beijing, far to the north, do not show the same universal reverence for his image.
I mention this as a way to introduce two books on China, one just re-published, which I recommend.
The first is Rebels of the Heavenly Kingdom by Katherine Paterson. Paterson is one of the most gifted authors of children’s books over the past 50 years. She has twice won the Newbery Award (in 1977 for Bridge to Terabithia, and in 1981 for Jacob Have I Loved). Paterson was born in China and spent her early childhood there.
In 1983, she published Rebels of the Heavenly Kingdom, which is a historical novel set in the years 1850 to 1853. The backdrop is the great Taiping Rebellion – a civil war which rocked China for 14 years and left 20 to 30 million dead. It is the American Civil War times twenty. It is almost unknown outside of China. Americans are preoccupied with the history of our own Civil War (which occurred at almost the same time).
The Taiping Rebellion was led by Hong Xiuquan (in Paterson’s novel referred to as Hung Hsiu-Ch’uan). In China the family name is the first character and is usually the shorthand way to refer to someone. Hong (or Hung) lived at the time and place where western missionaries were first entering China and making the first attempts to translate the Bible into Chinese. Hong was a young 22 year old teacher and student when he first encountered translations and summaries of the Bible in Chinese. Over the next several years, he had a series of vivid dreams in which he saw Confucius being punished for not teaching about the one God, and saw God the Heavenly Father on his throne, with Jesus standing beside him. In his dreams, Hong reported that they commissioned him to rid China of demon worship. Hong began to preach throughout the county where he lived, gained a following, and followed through on his exhortations by destroying idols and temples throughout the countryside.
Paterson’s novel opens as a young boy (Wang Lee) is kidnapped from his impoverished rural village by bandits (former soldiers, deserters from the Imperial army) and then sold into slavery, only to be purchased by a kindly young gentleman who turns out to be a follower of Hong and part of a rebel group. Actually, the young gentleman turns out to be a young lady, Mei Lin, who in a very effective disguise had been recruiting followers for the Way of Heavenly Peace (the Taiping).
The rest of the novel is the odyssey of these two improbable friends and followers of Hong (Wang remains skeptical, Mei Lin is more fervent) as the Taiping Rebellion grows, fights and defeats the Imperial armies, and eventually captures the important Imperial capital city of Nanking and makes it the center of their Heavenly Kingdom. The horrors of war are real and grim. There is death, both in battle and from intrigue. Soldiers and civilians are killed. The strange religious teachings of Hong are taught and repeated throughout the Heavenly Army. So strange, so similar to the teachings of the Bible and yet so tragically different and misused by the leaders of the Taiping.
The book has a reassuring, if slightly improbably ending. But after all the horrors that Wang and Mei Lin experience (both together and apart), it seems churlish to begrudge them some measure of happiness. Some of the incidents, implied and alluded to, will be disturbing to some readers. They should be disturbing. The realities of war and rebellion (and this particular war and rebellion) cannot be glossed over. In the end, to have read this book (and to have re-read it now ten years later) is to understand China and the Chinese reaction and reception to Christianity perhaps a bit better. The first encounter went so tragically awry. The subsequent events of the 20th century, from the violent attacks on Christians in the Boxer Rebellion of 1900 to the expulsion of all western missionaries by Mao’s People’s Republic in the 1950’s are in part explained by the horrible consequences of China’s first encounter with Christianity.
The survival and explosive growth of the Chinese house church movement in the 1970s and later is all the more remarkable, and all the more unexpected, given what had preceded it.
What is also remarkable is that Paterson crafted her tale 13 years before Jonathan Spence published his award-winning history of Hong Xiuquan in 1996: God’s Chinese Son.
I read Spence’s history of the leader of the Taiping rebellion when it was published, and then had the great good fortune to be able to visit the palace of Hong Xiuquan in Nanjing in 1999 when my oldest daughter and I journeyed to China to complete the adoption of our daughter Sarah. We had quite an adventure attempting to navigate Nanjing completely on our own and were astonished to discover that we were the only westerners in Nanjing visiting the museum on that particular day.
The entrance to the Taiping palace is dominated by a large bust of Hong Xiuquan. The Chinese communists judge him favorably for having led an early rebellion against the Imperial government of the Manchu. They largely gloss over the religious dimensions of the rebellion.
I commend both of these books to anyone who has an interest in China and who wishes to understand China better, especially the difficult history of Christianity in China.
Paterson’s tale is haunting and personal. The events of the rebellion seen through the eyes of two young people. It would be a thought-provoking read for students high school up through adult.
Spence’s history has a bit more emotional distance, but is a riveting tale none-the-less. Western missionaries were puzzled by Hong – and could not quite decide whether to endorse and encourage him for his appreciation of God and invocation of Jesus as God’s son, or to denounce and reject him for his heretical, megalomaniacal pronouncement that he himself was Jesus’ younger brother. 150 years later, it is still difficult to understand Hong Xiuquan and to decide what to make of him.
Rebels of the Heavenly Kingdom, by Katherine Paterson, has just been re-released after being out of print for a number of years. It is a 263 page paperback and sells for $12.95.
God’s Chinese Son, by Prof. Jonathan Spence, remains in print, 12 years after it was first published. It is a paperback, 430 pages and sells for $17.95. Either (or both) can be purchased directly from Greenleaf Press by clicking the links in this review. Or you can browse the selection of books on China on our website.
- Rob Shearer, Publisher
Greenleaf Press
PS: Readers of this review may receive a 10% discount on the purchase of either or both of these books by entering the coupon code CHINA during the checkout process. The coupon can only be redeemed once per customer.
December 15, 2008
M@IL for Mikey – An Odd Sort of Recovery Memoir
This is a brand new memoir from Orson Bean – published in September of 2008. Bean is best known as a Broadway and television actor. His career spans six decades. He had a seven-year-run on To Tell the Truth, and was Johnny Carson’s favorite guest host (and guest – he appeared over 200 times). In his own words: “Having pursued sex, drugs, and the demon rum to their traditional excess, he subsequently proceeded to (as the saying goes) find God.”
And love. He has been married to actress Alley Mills since 1993.
He’s also a gifted writer, with a wry, blunt wit.
The premise of M@IL for Mikey: An older, recovered alcoholic agrees to sponsor the son of one of his friends. The book consists of the letters/messages he sends over the course of two years as the young man struggles to stay clean and sober. We get only Mr. Bean’s messages – but can pretty easily discern the kinds of things the younger man is writing and asking about. This is a wonderful literary device, used effectively by C.S. Lewis in Letters to Malcolm and, more comically, in The Screwtape Letters.
Synopsis: Bean reveals the details of his own personal struggle as he offers sage and blunt advice to Mikey. He counsels Mikey on how to handle his new job and his relationships and never fails to offer encouragement and a closing admonition to “keep going to meetings.”
Along the way, we are allowed to read over the shoulder as Bean recounts his personal odyssey. Bean is matter-of-fact and brutally honest as he attempts to repair a strained relationship with his adult daughter, deal with the lingering effects of his own childhood (his mother drank, his dad was cruel and abusive). And the reader is drawn, irresistibly into Bean’s life as he acquires a stray dog, muses about quantum physics and the big bang theory, and befriends a never-married teacher at a local farmer’s market. This leads to a pivotal event, when, for the first time since his baptism as an infant, he is persuaded (with much kicking and screaming) into going to church with her.
In the book’s ‘M@IL messages’ Bean starts out by asserting his clear belief in God – but with a great deal of skepticism about religion in general and genuine puzzlement at the story of Jesus. As he discusses his childhood, his marriages, his children, and his own problems, Bean shows us his inner life and turmoil. He frankly discusses his battle with his own ego:
“Your ego doesn’t want you turning your life over to a higher power. He wants to keep on running things even if it kills you. He’s clever, Mikey, like the snake with the apple. He’ll make you forget to go to a meeting. He’ll convince you the dames will think you’re a wuss if you order a 7-UP.
He’s the damn devil, Mike, your ego. He hates God because when you turn your life over to him, he’s screwed. He loses his job.”
Parts of the book are laugh-out-loud funny. Parts will leave you misty-eyed.
Bean describes his motivation in writing the book this way:
“Not long ago, I was guesting on a TV show. Between takes, I sat in my canvas chair, reading a copy of C.S. Lewis’ great book, Mere Christianity. I can’t tell you how many people, crew and actors alike, came over to ask me about it. There seems to be a hunger out there, even in the television business.”
“I didn’t want a Christian house to publish my little book. What I’ve written is aimed at folks who are interested, but suspicious. They keep sniffing around, but are terrified of becoming Ned Flanders.”
Ned Flanders, for the culturally cloistered, is the too-nice-to-be-true Christian neighbor to Homer, Marge, & Bart on the Simpsons.
Some will find the language and some of the stories rough. Some may even be offended. Bean didn’t write the book for them.
To quote the author, M@IL for MIKEY was written for “the many who rarely set foot in a church but have a feeling deep down that Something created and loves them. MIKEY was written for those millions.
This will make a wonderful gift, and perhaps a way to start a significant conversation with someone you love, and want to share the good news with.
But be warned, it is “an odd sort of recovery memoir. . .”
10% discount offer – use the coupon code MIKEY at check out and 10% will be automatically deducted from your order. Discount coupon can only be used once per customer and applies only to the title M@IL for MIKEY.
PS: Bean describes in some detail his impressions of that first ever visit to church as an adult. He like the contemporary music and the upbeat songs, and then says:
. . . the last one is my favorite: “I’m coming back to the heart of worship, and it’s all about you, it’s all about you, Jesus. I’m sorry Lord for the thing I’ve made it, when it’s all about you, it’s all about you, Jesus.”
PPS: A very fervent hat-tip to the gentle bloggers at Powerline, where a posting by Scott Johnson entitled How Orson Bean found God first brought this excellent book to my attention. I thought so much of the lengthy piece by Orson Bean quoted there that I printed it out and used it as the conclusion to the sermon I preached week before last.
H.A. Rey’s Find the Constellations – return of a classic
H.A. Rey (and his wife, Margaret Rey) are best known as the authors of theCurious George series. Less well known is their personal history, emigrating from Hamburg, Germany during the 1930’s, first to Rio de Janeiro, and then to Paris, followed by a harrowing escape across France by bicycle in 1940 when the Germans invaded, making their way eventually to the United States. There’s a great book out that recounts that story – The Journey That Saved Curious George.
Find the Constellations is a classic book, that many of us will remember from our childhood – without ever having necessarily connected it theCurious Georgebooks. H.A. Rey originally published this book in 1954 – and it was hailed at the time as a classic introduction to the night sky, with some of the clearest star charts and constellation outlines ever produced.
This is a 72 page, 9in. x 10in. book, and goes far beyond just teaching the outlines of the constellations. Rey provides an introduction to the history of the constellations, the concept of star magnitude or brightness, the individual names of some of the brightest and most famous stars, and how to find and identify the planets. He also discusses the precession of the stars across the night sky day by day. The difference from one day to the next in a star reaching the same spot in the sky is 4 minutes. In one week it is 28 minutes. In a month, about 2 hours. In 12 months, 24 hours, and the stars are back to the positions at the same time as one year ago. This is a very practical way of introducing the connections between the motions of the earth and the stars and the seasons. And that is but one example of the topics artfully introduced.
Rey was a true renaissance man. German by birth, he studied philosophy, natural sciences, and languages at the universities of Munich and Hamburg. He spoke four languages fluently and read half a dozen more.
It’s great to see a classic children’s book like this revived and re-issued by the publisher – this edition brought out by Houghton Mifflin just last month.
10% discount offer with this email – use the coupon code REY at check out and 10% will be automatically deducted from your order.
Discount coupon can only be used once per customer and applies only to the title Find the Constellations (either hardback or paperback).
- Rob Shearer, Publisher
Greenleaf Press
December 2, 2008
Marco Polo and Galileo
Several years ago, National Geographic began publishing a series of World History Biographies targeted at young readers aged 8-12. Each is 64 pages, and (as you might expect from National Geographic) includes lots of illustrations, photographs, and maps. Each title has both an author and an academic/scholar consultant – an expert in the history/culture of the subject – who has worked with the author to insure the accuracy of the text.
The results are impressive. Each of the biographies includes some fascinating details – items that provide insight into character and background. Older readers with an interest in any of these figures will find them an interesting, though quick, read.
The other eight titles are currently published only as hardback versions (at $17.95 each) on the following figures: Alexander, Julius Caesar, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Saladin, Joan of Arc, Michelangelo, Isaac Newton, Mozart, Anne Frank, and Mao Zedong. As each of these is released in paperback, we’ll add them to the Greenleaf store.
Each of the eight titles linked above is a paperback, 64 pages and sells for $6.95. You can order any of them directly from Greenleaf Press by clicking on the link in this post.
- Rob Shearer, Publisher
Greenleaf Press
November 28, 2008
DK Art – over 2,500 works from Cave to Contemporary
DK Publishing has been producing some of the best children’s and young adult non-fiction reference over the past ten years. Their Eyewitness series is outstanding, both for the quality and selection of the visuals – as well as the clear narrative text that accompanies the photographs on various topics. We’ve been carrying the full Eyewitness series at Greenleaf for some time now – even adopting several titles for use in our history study packages (on Egypt and the Renaissance). I’ve been waiting, and hoping that DK would turn its considerable talents to the task of producing a comprehensive art history reference book.
They’ve done it, and it’s outstanding. Oh, I have a few quibbles, but this is a reference that no homeschool should be without. The size and comprehensive coverage of the book are impressive: 612 pages, 700+ artists, 2,500 works of art – all arranged Chronologically. Interspersed throughout the text there are themed sections on Looking at Art, Art Movements and Schools, Artist Profiles, Closer Looks, and Themes.
The Looking at Art section at the beginning is outstanding. In clear, concise terms illustrated by examples from important art works, it explains how to “read” a work of art more thoroughly, and understand what the artist was trying to achieve. Within this introductory section, there are essays on:
Subject and Composition
Perspective and Viewpoint
Light and Shade
Media and Techniques
Color
Brushstrokes and Texture
After the initial Looking At Art section of 24 pages, the rest of the book is divided into six roughly equal sections as follows:
Prehistory to 1400 (55 pages)
15th and 16th Centuries (102 pages)
17th and 18th Centuries (102 pages)
19th Century (106 pages)
Early 20th Century (100 pages)
1945 onward (100 pages)
In addition to the standard treatments and inclusion of important artists and gorgeous color photographs of their important works, there are also 21 “closer look” sections which give a detailed analysis (with lots of close-ups) on two page (and longer) spreads on these works:
The Book of Kells (2 pages)
Primavera by Sandro Botticelli (4 pages)
The Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci (4 pages)
Venus of Urbino by Titian (4 pages)
The Arnolfini Portrait by Jan van Eyck (3 pages)
Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch (4 pages)
Las Meninas by Velazquez (3 pages)
Self-Portrait by Rembrandt van Rijn (2 pages)
The Art of Painting by Jan Vermeer (2 pages)
The Third of May by Francisco de Goya (4 pages)
The Fighting Temeraire by J.M.W. Turner (4 pages)
Dejeuner sur l’herbe by Edouard Manet (4 pages)
La Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat (4 pages)
The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh (4 pages)
The Kiss by Gustav Klimt (4 pages)
Guernica by Pablo Picasso (4 pages)
Composition VII by Wassily Kandinsky (4 pages)
The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali (2 pages)
Autumn Rhythm (Number 30) by Jackson Pollock (4 pages)
Canyon by Robert Rauschenberg (2 pages)
Study After Velazquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X by Francis Bacon (2 pages)
Here are some sample spreads to give you an idea of what a visual feast this is:
Forever Young by Bob Dylan, illustrated by Paul Rogers
Forever Young – a new hardback picture book, just released (September, 2008). If there is an anthem for the boomer generation (and, having been born in 1955, I am a member), this song is probably it.
Written by the balladeer of the boomer generation, Bob Dylan, the song Forever Young was released in 1974 on the album Planet Waves.
And now, Paul Rogers has created an illustrated children’s book that gently and sweetly captures the sense of the lyrics.
Dylan is an incredibly gifted songwriter, and these lyrics were written for his then five-year-old son, Jakob – now a successful songwriter and performer in his own right.
The book will be a fun one for boomers to read to their children (or, let’s be honest folks) to our grand-children. It’s also very timely, as the first of the boomers are now in the early sixties, and the rest of the cohort (ahem, that would include me!) will turn 60 within the next 10 years.
Rogers uses the lyrics to retell Dylan’s own story in pictures, from his first guitar, through adolescent performances in the park, to the folk music scene in New York City and his involvement in the civil rights and anti-Vietnam war movements.
But the song remains much more personal than political and is a remarkably thoughtful and moving expression of a father’s blessing for his son.
And because this is the 21st century and the internet is such a versatile tool, here’s Bob Dylan singing Forever Young, and the lyrics below.
May God bless and keep you always,
May your wishes all come true,
May you always do for others
And let others do for you.
May you build a ladder to the stars And climb on every rung,
May you stay forever young, Forever young, forever young, May you stay forever young.
May you grow up to be righteous, May you grow up to be true,
May you always know the truth And see the lights surrounding you.
May you always be courageous, Stand upright and be strong,
May you stay forever young, Forever young, forever young, May you stay forever young.
May your hands always be busy, May your feet always be swift,
May you have a strong foundation When the winds of changes shift.
May your heart always be joyful, May your song always be sung,
May you stay forever young, Forever young, forever young, May you stay forever young
November 21, 2008
The Nutcracker - in story, pictures, and music
Just released this month! This version of The Nutcracker is a marvelous combination of story-telling, illustration, and great music. Included with the book is a CD recording of a full-orchestra performance of Tchaikovsky’s music by the Utah Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Maurice Abravanel.
Published as an Alfred Knopf Borzoi Book by Random House, this just might very well become the standard version of this popular story. Stephanie Spiner does an excellent job of retelling Hoffman’s short story – Marie, Fritz, and the other children are excitedly awaiting the exchanging of Christmas gifts. Marie’s godfather, Herr Drosselmeyer has the most intriguing gifts – two life-size dolls, who dance when you wind them up, and a life-size toy soldier who marches and maneuvers around the room. For Marie he has one last special gift, a large wooden nutcracker dressed like a general. When Marie falls asleep, she has a vivid dream in which the nutcracker comes to life, fights a dramatic battle with the mouse-king, is transformed from a mustachioed general into a dashing young prince, and takes her to visit his kingdom of sweets, presided over by the Sugar Plum Fairy, where she is entertained by flamenco dancers, Chinese dancers, an Arabian dancing girl, and Madame Ginger.
The illustrations to this fantastic tale are delicate, detailed, precise, and fantastic. Peter Malone is a British artist who studied at both Winchester and Coventry schools of art. Working in watercolors, he creates just the right mix of magic and realism here.
Peter Malone has also illustrated a book and CD version Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf ($19.99). Note: This version of the tale of Peter and the Wolf has a kinder and gentler ending than the traditional version (in which the wolf is captured and taken to the zoo). Here, the wolf promises to reform and is released back into the wild. Available directly from Greenleaf Press for $19.99 by clicking here.
Historical footnote: A performance of The Nutcracker has become a Christmas tradition in the United States, with hundreds of local productions by dance studios every year, in towns and cities large and small.
It comes as a surprise to most people when they learn that the version now widely performed has a history of only about 50 years. For me (I know, I just can’t help being the historian), the most interesting page of this new picture book was the final one with “A Note to the Reader.” Tchaikovsky wrote the music in 1892 to tell a tale adapted from a short story by the German Romantic author E.T.A. Hoffmann, published in 1816. Russian audiences liked the music. They didn’t much care for the ballet – which was performed with a cast of all adult dancers.
From 1915-1944, the ballet was performed by dance companies in Europe in various adaptations, but never achieved much critical success. The first full-length production with children in the cast seems to have been staged by the San Francisco Ballet in 1944. The modern versions of the Nutcracker which are now staged across the USA are all derived from the version choreographed by George Balanchine in 1954 for the New York City Ballet. Balanchine was a Russian émigré and had danced with the Imperial Ballet School in St. Petersburg before the Russian Revolution (which interrupted his studies just before his 14th birthday) and with the State Academic Theatre for Opera and Ballet after the Revolution. He fled Russia in 1924 and joined Serge Diaghilev and Stravinsky in Paris at the Ballets Russes. He came to the United States in 1933 and eventually founded the New York City Ballet in 1948. Beginning in 1954, the New York City Ballet’s annual staging of the Nutcracker has made it an American tradition.
- Rob Shearer, Publisher
Greenleaf Press
November 20, 2008
10,000 Days of Thunder – A History of the Vietnam War
It has been 33 years since the end of the Vietnam War – and yet it remains a terribly difficult story to tell, and there are very few books which can be used to explain to young people what happened.
World War Two suffered no such lack of attention or resources. By 1978, there were any number of useful books, biographies, and movies which helped to educate the boomers about what their parents had gone through.
The differences and difficulties are obvious, of course. The United States lost the Vietnam War. The memories are painful. Attitudes towards the war have continued to divide the boomer generation and its successors. In many ways, Barack Obama will be the first truly post-Vietnam president.
Nonetheless, telling the story of the Vietnam War to our children is an important task. Yes, it is difficult, but it remains important.
Up until Philip Caputo’s book, the best book for middle & high school students I knew of was Albert Marrin’s America and Vietnam: the Elephant and the Tiger. Marrin is an excellent historian, and an excellent writer. He’s the retired head of the History Department at Yeshiva University in New York. His book remains the best high school reading-level text currently available.
But along with Marrin’s book I would now also highly recommend Philip Caputo’s 10,000 Days of Thunder. It is written for a slightly younger audience and is much more visual and episodic in its approach to telling the story. It contains 40+ double-page spreads, each devoted to covering an aspect of the war, almost always with a full-page photograph and an excellent short essay on the topic at hand.
Here’s a sample of the topics:
Communism
Origins of the Vietnam War, Part One: French Colonialism in Vietnam
Origins of the Vietnam War, Part Two: The Dividing of Vietnam
Origins of the Vietnam War, Part Three: The Reasons for American Intervention
Viet Cong
The Tonkin Gulf Incidents
The Ia Drang Campaign
The Ho Chi Minh Trail
Agent Orange
The Tet Offensive
Atrocities: Hue and My Lai
The Antiwar Movement
The Draft
Vietnamization
The Paris Peace Talks
The Fall of Saigon
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial: The Wall
Caputo is a Pulitzer Prize winning author, and a Vietnam vet himself. His memoir of his experiences in Vietnam as a marine Lieutenant, A Rumor of War, has sold over two million copies since its publication in 1977. His prose style is clear and even-handed, not polemical. It is in his descriptions of the experience of individuals on the ground that he excels. The most gripping parts of this book, both visually and textually, are the units on how the war affected individuals. These make the book unique. Here’s a sample of the topics:
The Advisors’ War
The Riverine War
The Unconventional War
The Company Commanders’ War
The Villagers’ War
The Corpsmen’s War
The Nurses’ War
The Tunnel War
The Journalists’ War
Prisoners of War
With its heavy visual emphasis, this is a book that will be accessible and capture the interest of students from grades 5 and up. Even high school students and adults will find it an evocative introduction to a painful period of American history. It does not cover any of these topics in depth, but what it tells is true and thought provoking.
There is also an excellent book available from DK in their Eyewitness Series, titled simple Vietnam War (hardback, $15.99). If you’d like to study this important time period with your students, I’d recommend all three books as resources: Marrin, Caputo, and DK.
The Christmas Story – illustrated by a modern Renaissance artist
The full title is:
The Christmas Story
From the King James Bible * According to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke
Paintings by Gennady Spirin
It’s quite unusual to find a modern artist whose style evokes the late medieval/early renaissance style of Giotto and Fra Angelico – but Gennady Spirin is such an artist. Spirin was born in the USSR in 1948 and studied at the Academy of Arts in Moscow. He came to the US in 1991. He has won four gold medals from the Society of Illustrators in New York.
Kathy Viksjo writes in The Times on June 7, 1998:
“He incorporates Raphael’s rich color—deep gold, blue and crimson reds—together with the Italian master’s classical compositions, into many of his illustrations. The microscopic precision of his super—realism recalls Flemish great Jan Van Eyck, while Spirin’s unbelievable graphic facility is like that of German Renaissance artist, Albert Durer…Even at first glance, viewers intuitively know that this is one of the masters of our time…Spirin is like a magician, using his paint brush as a wand.”
This is not a coffee-table art book. It is a comfortable 7.5″ x 7.5″ It is a book to be read out loud with a child in your lap – slowly, allowing reader and listener to linger and marvel over the beauty of the paintings.
The text and paintings move gracefully through the familiar sections of the Christmas narrative, weaving together the passages from Luke and Matthew. Gennady works in tempera, watercolor, and pencil. He quotes from the great masters of western Christian art, but in his own distinctively delicate style.
There is the Annunciation, the Journey to Bethlehem, the angels and the shepherds, the journey of the wise men, and finally the classic iconic scene of the Adoration of the Magi. Here are four examples:
Just published - The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Civil War! This is a worthy addition to the Politically Incorrect Guides. I’ve previously reviewed the Politically Incorrect Guide to Western Civilization, and the Politically Incorrect Guide to English and American Literature.First, a few caveats. Neither the book (nor this post) is an apology for or a defense of slavery. I believe slavery to have been a great moral evil – and I wish it had been ended in this country earlier and with less bloodshed. But there is much more to the Civil War than simply the question of whether slavery was evil and should be abolished.Crocker deals directly with the topic of slavery early in the book in a 12-page essay in answer to the question, “Was the war really all about slavery?”
The first sentence of his answer is, “In the sense that the South was defined by slavery, yes.” He then proceeds to qualify that answer and show that the issue is far more complex than the politically correct answer.
As an example, he quotes a famous letter from Abraham Lincoln to Horace Greely in August 1862, in which he stated: “My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others also I would also do that.”
As Mr. Crocker observes, “. . . the stated aim of the Lincoln administration in 1861 was not the abolition of slavery; it was the forcible reunification of the Union.”
Both Jefferson Davis (President of the Confederate States) and Robert E. Lee believed that the abolition of slavery was something that would happen peaceably in due course. Lee’s opinion was that “emancipation will sooner result from the mild and melting influence of Christianity than from the storms and contests of fiery controversy.”
Crocker’s summarizes the conflict as a clash of cultures:
“The South considered the North an unprincipled money-grubbing, self-righteously intolerant leviathan, and thought of itself as a liberty-loving agricultural Sparta of gracious gentlemen, classical culture, and feudal order.
The North considered the South a backward land of hot-tempered planter-aristocrats who kept a booted heel and a master’s whip on the backs of slaves, tainted the Union with its “peculiar institution,” and dragged it into wars against Mexico only to expand its hateful “slave power.” The North, in its own view, was enlightened, practical and business-like, and consequently wealthy, forward-looking, and the obvious moral superior to a region that kept imported Africans in bondage.”
As Crocker shows, each side tended to caricature the other – which only underscores that the conflict (although it involved slavery as a central issue) was about much more than slavery. Crocker argues, convincingly, that the war was fought, not to free the slaves (though in the end, it resulted in their freedom), but to forcibly prevent the Southern states from peaceably seceding.
The majority of the book is not about why the war was fought, but devoted to retelling the course of the war from the Southern perspective. There are two chapters which tell The History of the War in Sixteen Battles You Should Know. These are well worth the read.
This is followed by nine chapters which are admirable biographies of the leading generals on both sides. Southern generals sketched are Robert E. Lee, James Longstreet, Nathan Bedford Forrest, Stonewall Jackson, and A.P. Hill. But there are also chapter length biographies of the Union generals George H. Thomas (introduced with the wry comment that “some of the best Union generals were southerners”), William Tecumseh Sherman, Ulysses S. Grant, and George McClellan.
Part IV of the book is a fascinating study of cavalry officers Wade Hampton, Philip Sheridan, J.E.B. Stuart and George Armstrong Custer.
Part V, titled Beating Retreat is an extended essay on the topic, What If the South Had Won? Crocker composes a remarkable speech that Lincoln might have given, but tragically didn’t, that begins:
We part as friends. We hope to reunite as friends. There will be no coercion of the Southern states by the people of the North. No state shall be kept in the Union against its will . . . but we ask the Southern states, to which we are bound by mystic chords of memory and affection, that they reconsider their action., If not now, then later, when the heat of anger has subsided, when they have seen the actions of this administration work only for the good of the whole and not for the partisan designs of a few; when this administration shows by word and deed that it is happy to live within the confines of the Constitution, that we will admit of no interference in the stabled institutions of the several states. I trust that by our demeanor, by our character, by our actions, by our prosperity and our progress we will prove to our separated brethren that we should again be more than neighbors, we should be more than friends, we should in fact be united states, for a house united is far stronger, will be far more prosperous, and will be far happier than a house divided, a house rent asunder by rancor, a house that undermines its very foundations by separation.
To the people of Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee, and Arkansas, I have a special message. I tell you that this government will raise no arms against the states of the Southern Confederacy. We will wage no war of subjugation against these states. And I confirm, yet again, that I have neither the right, nor the power, nor the desire to abolish slavery within these states or any other where it is lawfully established. What I do desire, as do all Northern states, is that we be once again a nation united in peace, amity, and common government. Let us through prayer and good graces work to achieve that end. I ask that all good men of the United States, and those now separated from us, work peaceably to achieve the reconciliation that is our destiny and our hope. Four score years ago we created a new nation, united in principle. I pray that sharing the same God, the same continent, and the same destiny, we might unite again in common principle and common government.”
If Lincoln had not gone to war to keep the Southern states from seceding, would they have one day returned and reunited with the Union peaceably? We will never know. We do know what waging war to prevent secession cost – and it was far more than Lincoln, or anyone else, expected.
Included as an Afterword to this volume is an essay by Jefferson Davis which he composed for his own history of the Confederacy. It is worth reading if one wants to understand what motivated the Southern states to secede and to fight for their independence.
The Politically Incorrect Guides are intended for college students as a balance and useful corrective to the usual bill of fare in politically correct textbooks, but they could be profitably read by high school students who are studying this important period of history. This Guide will also serve as a thought-provoking read for parents and all those interested in better understanding what is still one of the central facts of the history of the United States, the Civil War.
There are a number of other Politically Incorrect Guides. They are well-written, well-researched, and well documented. Each serves as a useful corrective to the overwhelming cultural bias that our current textbooks suffer from. We’ve decided at Greenleaf to carry them all. Here are all 15 of the titles:
Resources for parents and children on Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance, Reformation, & Modern History, Literature & Art.I recall a small, but significant moment in a taxicab ride in Changsha about twelve years ago. My oldest daughter and I had been in Changsha, Hunan Province for about a week, and I had noticed that every cab we got into had a pendant hanging from the rearview mirror with a portrait of Mao in a red-and-gold frame.
The first is Rebels of the Heavenly Kingdom by Katherine Paterson. Paterson is one of the most gifted authors of children’s books over the past 50 years. She has twice won the Newbery Award (in 1977 for Bridge to Terabithia, and in 1981 for Jacob Have I Loved). Paterson was born in China and spent her early childhood there.
What is also remarkable is that Paterson crafted her tale 13 years before Jonathan Spence published his award-winning history of Hong Xiuquan in 1996: God’s Chinese Son.
